Graphical element detection using a combination of user interface descriptor attributes from two or more graphical element detection techniques

ABSTRACT

Graphical element detection using a combination of user interface (UI) descriptor attributes from two or more graphical element detection techniques is disclosed. UI descriptors may be used to compare attributes for a given UI descriptor with attributes of UI elements found at runtime in the UI. At runtime, the attributes for the UI elements found in the UI can be searched for matches with attributes for a respective RPA workflow activity, and if an exact match or a match within a matching threshold is found, the UI element may be identified and interacted with accordingly.

FIELD

The present invention generally relates to graphical element detection,and more specifically, to graphical element detection using acombination of user interface (UI) descriptor attributes from two ormore graphical element detection techniques.

BACKGROUND

For robotic process automation (RPA) in a UI, graphical elementdetection may be performed using selectors, computer vision (CV), oroptical character recognition (OCR) for each UI action. However, thesetechniques are applied individually and are not optimal for allscenarios. Accordingly, an improved approach may be beneficial.

SUMMARY

Certain embodiments of the present invention may provide solutions tothe problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fullyidentified, appreciated, or solved by current graphical elementdetection technologies. For example, some embodiments of the presentinvention pertain to graphical element detection using a combination ofUI descriptor attributes from two or more graphical element detectiontechniques (e.g., selectors, CV, OCR, etc.).

In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method for detecting graphicalelements in a UI includes receiving, by a designer application, aselection of an activity to be configured in an RPA workflow. Thecomputer-implemented method also includes receiving, by the designerapplication, selections of and/or modifications to one or more graphicalelement detection techniques of a plurality of graphical elementdetection techniques, one or more UI descriptor attributes of thegraphical element detection techniques, or a combination thereof. Thecomputer-implemented method further includes configuring the activity,by the designer application, based on the received selections of and/ormodifications.

In another embodiment, a computer program is embodied on anon-transitory computer-readable medium. The program is configured tocause at least one processor to receive a selection of an activity to beconfigured in an RPA workflow. The computer program is also configuredto cause the at least one processor to receive selections of and/ormodifications to one or more graphical element detection techniques of aplurality of graphical element detection techniques, one or more UIdescriptor attributes of the graphical element detection techniques, ora combination thereof. The computer program is further configured tocause the at least one processor to configure the activity based on thereceived selections of and/or modifications.

In yet another embodiment, a computer program is embodied on anon-transitory computer-readable medium. The program is configured tocause at least one processor to analyze a UI at runtime to identify UIelement attributes. The computer program is also configured to cause theat least one processor to compare the UI element attributes to UIdescriptor attributes from a plurality of graphical element detectiontechniques for an activity of an RPA workflow. When a UI elementmatching the attributes of the plurality of graphical element detectiontechniques is found via an exact match or a threshold match, thecomputer program is configured to cause the at least one processor totake an action associated with the activity involving the UI element.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the advantages of certain embodiments of the inventionwill be readily understood, a more particular description of theinvention briefly described above will be rendered by reference tospecific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings.While it should be understood that these drawings depict only typicalembodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered tobe limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explainedwith additional specificity and detail through the use of theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an architectural diagram illustrating a robotic processautomation (RPA) system, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is an architectural diagram illustrating a deployed RPA system,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an architectural diagram illustrating the relationship betweena designer, activities, and drivers, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is an architectural diagram illustrating an RPA system, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an architectural diagram illustrating a computing systemconfigured to perform graphical element detection using a combination ofUI descriptor attributes from two or more graphical element detectiontechniques, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example graphical element detection techniqueconfiguration interface for an RPA designer application, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate another example graphical element detectiontechnique configuration interface for an RPA designer application,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process for configuring an RPAworkflow to perform graphical element detection using a combination ofUI descriptor attributes from two or more graphical element detectiontechniques, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process for performing graphicalelement detection using a combination of UI descriptor attributes fromtwo or more graphical element detection techniques, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

Unless otherwise indicated, similar reference characters denotecorresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Some embodiments pertain to graphical element detection using acombination of UI descriptor attributes from two or more graphicalelement detection techniques (e.g., selectors, CV, OCR, etc.).“Graphical elements” and “UT elements” are used interchangeably herein.At their core, UI descriptors identify the UI elements (e.g., textfields, buttons, labels, menus, checkboxes, etc.). Some types of UIdescriptors include, but are not limited to, selectors, CV descriptors,image matching descriptors, OCR descriptors, unified target descriptorsthat may utilize multiple different types of UI descriptors in series orin parallel, etc. UI descriptors may be used to compare attributes for agiven UI descriptor with attributes of UI elements found at runtime inthe UI.

In some embodiments, UI descriptors store the attributes of therespective UI element and its parents, e.g., in an Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML) fragment. At runtime, the attributes for the UI elementsfound in the UI can be searched for matches with attributes for arespective RPA workflow activity, and if an exact match or a “closeenough” match is found within a matching threshold, the UI element maybe identified and interacted with accordingly. The attributes mayinclude text-based identifiers (IDs), classes, roles, and the like. ForCV, the attributes may include the type of the target element and therelation to one or more anchor elements that may be used in amulti-anchor matching approach. For OCR, the attributes may include textin the form of a stored string, for example, and text found via OCR towhich the stored string was fuzzy matched during execution. Any suitableattributes and graphical element detection techniques may be usedwithout deviating from the scope of the invention.

Some embodiments search for a mix of automatically or custom-definedattributes from two or more different graphical element detectiontechniques. For instance, some selector attributes, some CV descriptorattributes, and some OCR descriptor attributes may be used tocollectively, and potentially simultaneously, identify the graphicalelement at runtime in a manner that may be more accurate than using anygraphical element detection technique alone. For example, if there arevarious groups of checkboxes on a screen with different visualappearances, it may make sense to use a combination of an image matchingdescriptor to identify the checkbox image and a CV descriptor thatprovides multi-anchor matching information pertaining to the location ofthe specific checkbox in relation to nearby anchor UI elements. This mayincrease accuracy over a single graphical element detection techniquealone.

In some embodiments, the combined graphical element detection techniquemay be configured at design time using an RPA designer application(e.g., UiPath Studio™). For instance, an out-of-the-box click activitycould be configured to look at a type of a target graphical element tobe identified and/or certain characteristics of the target graphicalelement to be identified to automatically determine what combination ofgraphical element detection techniques and respective attributes to use.In certain embodiments, the RPA developer may modify the default logicfor the activity and/or provide the graphical element detectiontechniques and attributes thereof to be used manually. For instance, theRPA developer may select the types of graphical element detectiontechniques to apply. In some embodiments, the RPA developer may selectfrom a list of attributes for the given techniques to select from, thedeveloper may enter the attributes manually, etc.

The combination of attributes used from these techniques can be a subsetand/or all of the attributes for each technique. For instance, in someembodiments, all attributes for all selected techniques may be used.However, in certain embodiments, one attribute from a selector may beused, two attributes from a CV descriptor may be used, all attributesfrom an OCR descriptor may be used, etc.

As used herein, a “screen” is an image of an application UI or a portionof the application UI at a certain point in time. In some embodiments,UI elements and screens may be further differentiated into specifictypes of UI elements (e.g., buttons, checkboxes, text fields, etc.) andscreens (e.g., top windows, modal windows, popup windows, etc.).

Some embodiments use UI descriptors that store the attributes of a UIelement and its parents in an XML fragment. In modern computing systems,the operating system typically represents each user interface as ahierarchical data structure that is commonly referred to as a UI tree.An example UI tree may include a document object model (DOM) underlyinga webpage rendered by a web browser application.

Selectors are a type of UI descriptor that may be used to detect UIelements in some embodiments. A selector has the following structure insome embodiments:

<node_1/><node_2/> . . . <node_N/>

The last node represents the GUI element of interest, and all previousnodes represent the parents of that element. <node_1> is usuallyreferred to as a root node, and represents the top window of theapplication.

Each node may have one or more attributes that assist with correctidentification of a specific level of the selected application. Eachnode has the following format in some embodiments:

<ui_system_attr_name_1=‘attr_value_1’ . . . attr_name_N=‘attr_value_N’/>

Every attribute may have an assigned value, and attributes with constantvalues may be selected. This is because changes to the value of anattribute each time the application is started may lead to the selectornot being able to correctly identify the associated element.

A UI descriptor is a set of instructions for finding a UI element. UIdescriptors in some embodiments are an encapsulated data/struct formatthat includes UI element selector(s), anchor selector(s), CVdescriptor(s), OCR descriptor(s), unified target descriptor(s) combiningtwo or more types of UI descriptors, a screen image capture (context),an element image capture, other metadata (e.g., the application andapplication version), a combination thereof, etc. The encapsulateddata/struct format may be extensible with future updates to the platformand is not limited to the above definition. Any suitable UI descriptorfor identifying a UI element on a screen may be used without deviatingfrom the scope of the invention. UI descriptors may be extracted fromactivities in an RPA workflow and added to a structured schema thatgroups the UI descriptors by UI applications, screens, and UI elements.

The UI descriptors may work with a unified target that encompassesmultiple or all UI detection mechanisms through which image detectionand definition are performed in some embodiments. The unified target maymerge multiple techniques of identifying and automating UI elements intoa single cohesive approach. A unified target descriptor chains togethermultiple types of UI descriptors in series, uses them in parallel, oruses at least one technique (e.g., a selector) first for a period oftime and then runs at least one other technique in parallel if the firsttechnique does not find a match within the time period. In someembodiments, a unified target descriptor may function like a finitestate machine (FSM), where in a first context, a first UI descriptormechanism is applied, in a second context, a second UI descriptor isapplied, etc. The unified target may prioritize selector-based anddriver-based UI detection mechanisms and fall back on CV, imagematching, and/or other mechanisms to find a graphical element if thefirst two mechanisms are not successful in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, fuzzy matching may be employed, where one or moreattributes should match with a certain accuracy (e.g., a 70% match, an80% match, a 99% match, etc.), within a certain range, using stringmetrics (e.g., a Levenshtein distance, a Hamming distance, aJaro-Winkler distance, etc.), a combination thereof, etc. One ofordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the similarity measuremay quantify an amount of similarity, as well as an amount of mismatchbetween two attribute values. Furthermore, in various embodiments, thesimilarity threshold may represent a maximum amount of mismatch or aminimum amount of similarity required for a match.

Depending on the chosen manner of computing the similarity measure, thesimilarity threshold can have various interpretations. For instance, thesimilarity threshold may indicate a maximum count of characters that candiffer between the two strings or a fractional degree of mismatchcalculated as a proportion of the total count of characters (e.g.,combined string length). In some embodiments, the similarity thresholdmay be re-scaled to a predetermined interval, such as between 0 and 1,between 0 and 100, between 7 and 34, etc. In one nonlimiting example, arelatively high similarity threshold (e.g., close to 1 or 100%)indicates a requirement for an almost exact match, i.e., the value ofthe fuzzy attribute in the runtime target is only allowed to depart veryslightly from the value of the respective attribute in the design timetarget. In contrast, when the similarity threshold is relatively low(e.g., close to 0), almost any values of the respective fuzzy attributeare considered as matching.

In certain embodiments, the matching tolerance may differ on aper-attribute basis. For instance, an exact match may be required forone or more attributes (e.g., it may be desired to find a certain exactname) and fuzzy matching may be performed for one or more otherattributes. The number and/or type of attributes used from eachgraphical element detection technique may be custom-specified by the RPAdeveloper in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, attributes may be stored as attribute-value pairsand/or attribute-value-tolerance pairs (e.g., fuzzy matching).Attribute-value pairs may indicate a name and a type of UI elementrepresented by the respective node in some embodiments. However, oneskilled in the art will appreciate that there may be multiple ways torepresent a location of a specific node within a UI tree other than alist of attribute-value pairs without deviating from the scope of theinvention.

These attribute-value pairs and/or attribute-value-tolerance pairs maybe stored in a tag in some embodiments, and each tag may include asequence of characters with the sequence book-ended byimplementation-specific delimiters (e.g., beginning with “<” and endingwith “/>”). Attribute-value pairs may indicate a name and a type of UIelement represented by the respective node in some embodiments. However,one skilled in the art will appreciate that there may be multiple waysto represent a location of a specific node within a UI tree other than alist of attribute-value pairs without deviating from the scope of theinvention.

To enable a successful and ideally unambiguous identification by an RPArobot, some embodiments represent each UI element using an element IDcharacterizing the respective UI element. The element ID in someembodiments indicates a location of a target node within a UI tree,where the target node represents the respective UI element. Forinstance, the element ID may identify a target node/UI element as amember of a selected subset of nodes. The selected subset of nodes mayform a genealogy, i.e., a line of descent through the UI tree where eachnode is either an ancestor or a descendant of another node.

In some embodiments, the element ID includes an ordered sequence of nodeindicators, the sequence tracing a genealogical path through the UItree, and the path ending in the respective target node/UI element. Eachnode indicator may represent a member of an object hierarchy of therespective UI and its position within the sequence consistent with therespective hierarchy. For instance, each member of the sequence mayrepresent a descendant (e.g., a child node) of the previous member, andmay have the following member as a descendant (e.g., a child node). Inone HyperText Markup Language (HTML) example, an element ID representingan individual form field may indicate that the respective form field isa child of an HTML form, which in turn is a child of a specific sectionof a webpage, etc. The genealogy does not need to be complete in someembodiments.

Some embodiments may use one or more multi-anchor matching attributes.Anchors are other UI elements that can be used to assist in uniquelyidentifying a target UI element. For instance, if multiple text fieldsare included in a UI, searching for a text field alone is insufficientto uniquely identify a given text field. Accordingly, some embodimentslook for additional information in order to uniquely identify a given UIelement. Using the text field example, a text field for entering a firstname may appear to the right of the label “First Name”. This first namelabel may be set as an “anchor” to help to uniquely identify the textfield, which is the “target”.

Various positional and/or geometric associations between the target andthe anchor may be used in some embodiments, potentially within one ormore tolerances, to uniquely identify the target. For instance, thecenter of bounding boxes for the anchor and the target may be used todefine a line segment. This line segment could then be required to havea certain length within a tolerance and/or slope within a tolerance touniquely identify the target using the target/anchor pair. However, anydesired position of the location associated with the target and/oranchors may be used in some embodiments without deviating from the scopeof the invention. For instance, the point for drawing line segments maybe in the center, upper left corner, upper right corner, lower leftcorner, lower right corner, any other location on the border of thebounding box, any location within the bounding box, a location outsideof the bounding box as identified in relation to the bounding boxproperties, etc. In certain embodiments, the target and one or moreanchors may have different locations within or outside of their boundingboxes that are used for geometric matching.

Per the above, a single anchor may not always be sufficient to uniquelyidentify a target element on a screen with a certain confidence. Forinstance, consider a web form where two text field for entering a firstname appear to the right of respective labels “First Name” in differentlocations on the screen. In this example, one or more additional anchorsmay be useful to uniquely identify a given target. The geometricproperties between the anchors and the target (e.g., line segmentlengths, angles, and/or relative locations with tolerances) may be usedto uniquely identify the target. The user may be required to continue toadd anchors until a match strength for the target exceeds the threshold.

As used herein, the terms “user” and “developer” are usedinterchangeably. The user/developer may or may not have programmingand/or technical knowledge. For instance, in some embodiments, theuser/developer may create RPA workflows by configuring activities in theRPA workflow without manual coding. In certain embodiments, this may bedone by clicking and dragging and dropping various features, forexample.

Certain embodiments may be employed for robotic process automation(RPA). FIG. 1 is an architectural diagram illustrating an RPA system100, according to an embodiment of the present invention. RPA system 100includes a designer 110 that allows a developer to design and implementworkflows. Designer 110 may provide a solution for applicationintegration, as well as automating third-party applications,administrative Information Technology (IT) tasks, and business ITprocesses. Designer 110 may facilitate development of an automationproject, which is a graphical representation of a business process.Simply put, designer 110 facilitates the development and deployment ofworkflows and robots.

The automation project enables automation of rule-based processes bygiving the developer control of the execution order and the relationshipbetween a custom set of steps developed in a workflow, defined herein as“activities.” One commercial example of an embodiment of designer 110 isUiPath Studio™. Each activity may include an action, such as clicking abutton, reading a file, writing to a log panel, etc. In someembodiments, workflows may be nested or embedded.

Some types of workflows may include, but are not limited to, sequences,flowcharts, FSMs, and/or global exception handlers. Sequences may beparticularly suitable for linear processes, enabling flow from oneactivity to another without cluttering a workflow. Flowcharts may beparticularly suitable to more complex business logic, enablingintegration of decisions and connection of activities in a more diversemanner through multiple branching logic operators. FSMs may beparticularly suitable for large workflows. FSMs may use a finite numberof states in their execution, which are triggered by a condition (i.e.,transition) or an activity. Global exception handlers may beparticularly suitable for determining workflow behavior whenencountering an execution error and for debugging processes.

Once a workflow is developed in designer 110, execution of businessprocesses is orchestrated by conductor 120, which orchestrates one ormore robots 130 that execute the workflows developed in designer 110.One commercial example of an embodiment of conductor 120 is UiPathOrchestrator™. Conductor 120 facilitates management of the creation,monitoring, and deployment of resources in an environment. Conductor 120may act as an integration point, or one of the aggregation points, withthird-party solutions and applications.

Conductor 120 may manage a fleet of robots 130, connecting and executingrobots 130 from a centralized point. Types of robots 130 that may bemanaged include, but are not limited to, attended robots 132, unattendedrobots 134, development robots (similar to unattended robots 134, butused for development and testing purposes), and nonproduction robots(similar to attended robots 132, but used for development and testingpurposes). Attended robots 132 may be triggered by user events or bescheduled to automatically happen, and operate alongside a human on thesame computing system. Attended robots 132 may be used with conductor120 for a centralized process deployment and logging medium. Attendedrobots 132 may help the human user accomplish various tasks, and may betriggered by user events. In some embodiments, processes cannot bestarted from conductor 120 on this type of robot and/or they cannot rununder a locked screen. In certain embodiments, attended robots 132 canonly be started from a robot tray or from a command prompt. Attendedrobots 132 should run under human supervision in some embodiments.

Unattended robots 134 run unattended in virtual environments or onphysical machines, and can automate many processes. Unattended robots134 may be responsible for remote execution, monitoring, scheduling, andproviding support for work queues. Debugging for all robot types may berun from designer 110 in some embodiments. Both attended and unattendedrobots may automate various systems and applications including, but notlimited to, mainframes, web applications, VMs, enterprise applications(e.g., those produced by SAP®, SalesForce®, Oracle®, etc.), andcomputing system applications (e.g., desktop and laptop applications,mobile device applications, wearable computer applications, etc.).

Conductor 120 may have various capabilities including, but not limitedto, provisioning, deployment, versioning, configuration, queueing,monitoring, logging, and/or providing interconnectivity. Provisioningmay include creating and maintenance of connections between robots 130and conductor 120 (e.g., a web application). Deployment may includeassuring the correct delivery of package versions to assigned robots 130for execution. Versioning may include management of unique instances ofsome process or configuration in some embodiments. Configuration mayinclude maintenance and delivery of robot environments and processconfigurations. Queueing may include providing management of queues andqueue items. Monitoring may include keeping track of robotidentification data and maintaining user permissions. Logging mayinclude storing and indexing logs to a database (e.g., an SQL database)and/or another storage mechanism (e.g., ElasticSearch®, which providesthe ability to store and quickly query large datasets). Conductor 120may provide interconnectivity by acting as the centralized point ofcommunication for third-party solutions and/or applications.

Robots 130 are execution agents that run workflows built in designer110. One commercial example of some embodiments of robot(s) 130 isUiPath Robots™. In some embodiments, robots 130 install the MicrosoftWindows® Service Control Manager (SCM)-managed service by default. As aresult, such robots 130 can open interactive Windows® sessions under thelocal system account, and have the rights of a Windows® service.

In some embodiments, robots 130 can be installed in a user mode. Forsuch robots 130, this means they have the same rights as the user underwhich a given robot 130 has been installed. This feature may also beavailable for High Density (HD) robots, which ensure full utilization ofeach machine at its maximum potential. In some embodiments, any type ofrobot 130 may be configured in an HD environment.

Robots 130 in some embodiments are split into several components, eachbeing dedicated to a particular automation task. The robot components insome embodiments include, but are not limited to, SCM-managed robotservices, user mode robot services, executors, agents, and command line.SCM-managed robot services manage and monitor Windows® sessions and actas a proxy between conductor 120 and the execution hosts (i.e., thecomputing systems on which robots 130 are executed). These services aretrusted with and manage the credentials for robots 130. A consoleapplication is launched by the SCM under the local system.

User mode robot services in some embodiments manage and monitor Windows®sessions and act as a proxy between conductor 120 and the executionhosts. User mode robot services may be trusted with and manage thecredentials for robots 130. A Windows® application may automatically belaunched if the SCM-managed robot service is not installed.

Executors may run given jobs under a Windows® session (i.e., they mayexecute workflows. Executors may be aware of per-monitor dots per inch(DPI) settings. Agents may be Windows® Presentation Foundation (WPF)applications that display the available jobs in the system tray window.Agents may be a client of the service. Agents may request to start orstop jobs and change settings. The command line is a client of theservice. The command line is a console application that can request tostart jobs and waits for their output.

Having components of robots 130 split as explained above helpsdevelopers, support users, and computing systems more easily run,identify, and track what each component is executing. Special behaviorsmay be configured per component this way, such as setting up differentfirewall rules for the executor and the service. The executor may alwaysbe aware of DPI settings per monitor in some embodiments. As a result,workflows may be executed at any DPI, regardless of the configuration ofthe computing system on which they were created. Projects from designer110 may also be independent of browser zoom level in some embodiments.For applications that are DPI-unaware or intentionally marked asunaware, DPI may be disabled in some embodiments.

FIG. 2 is an architectural diagram illustrating a deployed RPA system200, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In someembodiments, RPA system 200 may be, or may be a part of, RPA system 100of FIG. 1. It should be noted that the client side, the server side, orboth, may include any desired number of computing systems withoutdeviating from the scope of the invention. On the client side, a robotapplication 210 includes executors 212, an agent 214, and a designer216. However, in some embodiments, designer 216 may not be running oncomputing system 210. Executors 212 are running processes. Severalbusiness projects may run simultaneously, as shown in FIG. 2. Agent 214(e.g., a Windows® service) is the single point of contact for allexecutors 212 in this embodiment. All messages in this embodiment arelogged into conductor 230, which processes them further via databaseserver 240, indexer server 250, or both. As discussed above with respectto FIG. 1, executors 212 may be robot components.

In some embodiments, a robot represents an association between a machinename and a username. The robot may manage multiple executors at the sametime. On computing systems that support multiple interactive sessionsrunning simultaneously (e.g., Windows® Server 2012), multiple robots maybe running at the same time, each in a separate Windows® session using aunique username. This is referred to as HD robots above.

Agent 214 is also responsible for sending the status of the robot (e.g.,periodically sending a “heartbeat” message indicating that the robot isstill functioning) and downloading the required version of the packageto be executed. The communication between agent 214 and conductor 230 isalways initiated by agent 214 in some embodiments. In the notificationscenario, agent 214 may open a WebSocket channel that is later used byconductor 230 to send commands to the robot (e.g., start, stop, etc.).

On the server side, a presentation layer (web application 232, Open DataProtocol (OData) Representative State Transfer (REST) ApplicationProgramming Interface (API) endpoints 234, and notification andmonitoring 236), a service layer (API implementation/business logic238), and a persistence layer (database server 240 and indexer server250) are included. Conductor 230 includes web application 232, ODataREST API endpoints 234, notification and monitoring 236, and APIimplementation/business logic 238. In some embodiments, most actionsthat a user performs in the interface of conductor 230 (e.g., viabrowser 220) are performed by calling various APIs. Such actions mayinclude, but are not limited to, starting jobs on robots,adding/removing data in queues, scheduling jobs to run unattended, etc.without deviating from the scope of the invention. Web application 232is the visual layer of the server platform. In this embodiment, webapplication 232 uses Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript(JS). However, any desired markup languages, script languages, or anyother formats may be used without deviating from the scope of theinvention. The user interacts with web pages from web application 232via browser 220 in this embodiment in order to perform various actionsto control conductor 230. For instance, the user may create robotgroups, assign packages to the robots, analyze logs per robot and/or perprocess, start and stop robots, etc.

In addition to web application 232, conductor 230 also includes servicelayer that exposes OData REST API endpoints 234. However, otherendpoints may be included without deviating from the scope of theinvention. The REST API is consumed by both web application 232 andagent 214. Agent 214 is the supervisor of one or more robots on theclient computer in this embodiment.

The REST API in this embodiment covers configuration, logging,monitoring, and queueing functionality. The configuration endpoints maybe used to define and configure application users, permissions, robots,assets, releases, and environments in some embodiments. Logging RESTendpoints may be used to log different information, such as errors,explicit messages sent by the robots, and other environment-specificinformation, for instance. Deployment REST endpoints may be used by therobots to query the package version that should be executed if the startjob command is used in conductor 230. Queueing REST endpoints may beresponsible for queues and queue item management, such as adding data toa queue, obtaining a transaction from the queue, setting the status of atransaction, etc.

Monitoring REST endpoints may monitor web application 232 and agent 214.Notification and monitoring API 236 may be REST endpoints that are usedfor registering agent 214, delivering configuration settings to agent214, and for sending/receiving notifications from the server and agent214. Notification and monitoring API 236 may also use WebSocketcommunication in some embodiments.

The persistence layer includes a pair of servers in thisembodiment—database server 240 (e.g., a SQL server) and indexer server250. Database server 240 in this embodiment stores the configurations ofthe robots, robot groups, associated processes, users, roles, schedules,etc. This information is managed through web application 232 in someembodiments. Database server 240 may manages queues and queue items. Insome embodiments, database server 240 may store messages logged by therobots (in addition to or in lieu of indexer server 250).

Indexer server 250, which is optional in some embodiments, stores andindexes the information logged by the robots. In certain embodiments,indexer server 250 may be disabled through configuration settings. Insome embodiments, indexer server 250 uses ElasticSearch®, which is anopen source project full-text search engine. Messages logged by robots(e.g., using activities like log message or write line) may be sentthrough the logging REST endpoint(s) to indexer server 250, where theyare indexed for future utilization.

FIG. 3 is an architectural diagram illustrating the relationship 300between a designer 310, activities 320, 330, and drivers 340, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. Per the above, a developeruses designer 310 to develop workflows that are executed by robots.Workflows may include user-defined activities 320 and UI automationactivities 330. Some embodiments are able to identify non-textual visualcomponents in an image, which is called computer vision (CV) herein.Some CV activities pertaining to such components may include, but arenot limited to, click, type, get text, hover, element exists, refreshscope, highlight, etc. Click in some embodiments identifies an elementusing CV, optical character recognition (OCR), fuzzy text matching, andmulti-anchor, for example, and clicks it. Type may identify an elementusing the above and types in the element. Get text may identify thelocation of specific text and scan it using OCR. Hover may identify anelement and hover over it. Element exists may check whether an elementexists on the screen using the techniques described above. In someembodiments, there may be hundreds or even thousands of activities thatcan be implemented in designer 310. However, any number and/or type ofactivities may be available without deviating from the scope of theinvention.

UI automation activities 330 are a subset of special, lower levelactivities that are written in lower level code (e.g., CV activities)and facilitate interactions with applications through the UI layer. Incertain embodiments, UI automation activities 300 may simulate” userinput through window messages or the like, for example. UI automationactivities 330 facilitate these interactions via drivers 340 that allowthe robot to interact with the desired software. For instance, drivers340 may include OS drivers 342, browser drivers 344, VM drivers 346,enterprise application drivers 348, etc.

Drivers 340 may interact with the OS at a low level looking for hooks,monitoring for keys, etc. They may facilitate integration with Chrome®,IE®, Citrix®, SAP®, etc. For instance, the “click” activity performs thesame role in these different applications via drivers 340.

FIG. 4 is an architectural diagram illustrating an RPA system 400,according to an embodiment of the present invention. In someembodiments, RPA system 400 may be or include RPA systems 100 and/or 200of FIGS. 1 and/or 2. RPA system 400 includes multiple client computingsystems 410 running robots. Computing systems 410 are able tocommunicate with a conductor computing system 420 via a web applicationrunning thereon. Conductor computing system 420, in turn, is able tocommunicate with a database server 430 and an optional indexer server440.

With respect to FIGS. 1 and 3, it should be noted that while a webapplication is used in these embodiments, any suitable client and/orserver software may be used without deviating from the scope of theinvention. For instance, the conductor may run a server-side applicationthat communicates with non-web-based client software applications on theclient computing systems.

FIG. 5 is an architectural diagram illustrating a computing system 500configured to perform graphical element detection using a combination ofUI descriptor attributes from two or more graphical element detectiontechniques, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In someembodiments, computing system 500 may be one or more of the computingsystems depicted and/or described herein. Computing system 500 includesa bus 505 or other communication mechanism for communicatinginformation, and processor(s) 510 coupled to bus 505 for processinginformation. Processor(s) 510 may be any type of general or specificpurpose processor, including a Central Processing Unit (CPU), anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field ProgrammableGate Array (FPGA), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), multiple instancesthereof, and/or any combination thereof. Processor(s) 510 may also havemultiple processing cores, and at least some of the cores may beconfigured to perform specific functions. Multi-parallel processing maybe used in some embodiments. In certain embodiments, at least one ofprocessor(s) 510 may be a neuromorphic circuit that includes processingelements that mimic biological neurons. In some embodiments,neuromorphic circuits may not require the typical components of a VonNeumann computing architecture.

Computing system 500 further includes a memory 515 for storinginformation and instructions to be executed by processor(s) 510. Memory515 can be comprised of any combination of Random Access Memory (RAM),Read Only Memory (ROM), flash memory, cache, static storage such as amagnetic or optical disk, or any other types of non-transitorycomputer-readable media or combinations thereof. Non-transitorycomputer-readable media may be any available media that can be accessedby processor(s) 510 and may include volatile media, non-volatile media,or both. The media may also be removable, non-removable, or both.

Additionally, computing system 500 includes a communication device 520,such as a transceiver, to provide access to a communications network viaa wireless and/or wired connection. In some embodiments, communicationdevice 520 may be configured to use Frequency Division Multiple Access(FDMA), Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access(TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Orthogonal FrequencyDivision Multiplexing (OFDM), Orthogonal Frequency Division MultipleAccess (OFDMA), Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications, GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS), cdma2000, Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), High-Speed Downlink PacketAccess (HSDPA), High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), High-SpeedPacket Access (HSPA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced (LTE-A),802.11x, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Ultra-WideBand (UWB), 802.16x, 802.15, HomeNode-B (HnB), Bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), InfraredData Association (IrDA), Near-Field Communications (NFC), fifthgeneration (5G), New Radio (NR), any combination thereof, and/or anyother currently existing or future-implemented communications standardand/or protocol without deviating from the scope of the invention. Insome embodiments, communication device 520 may include one or moreantennas that are singular, arrayed, phased, switched, beamforming,beamsteering, a combination thereof, and or any other antennaconfiguration without deviating from the scope of the invention.

Processor(s) 510 are further coupled via bus 505 to a display 525, suchas a plasma display, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a Light EmittingDiode (LED) display, a Field Emission Display (FED), an Organic LightEmitting Diode (OLED) display, a flexible OLED display, a flexiblesubstrate display, a projection display, a 4K display, a high definitiondisplay, a Retina® display, an In-Plane Switching (IPS) display, or anyother suitable display for displaying information to a user. Display 525may be configured as a touch (haptic) display, a three dimensional (3D)touch display, a multi-input touch display, a multi-touch display, etc.using resistive, capacitive, surface-acoustic wave (SAW) capacitive,infrared, optical imaging, dispersive signal technology, acoustic pulserecognition, frustrated total internal reflection, etc. Any suitabledisplay device and haptic I/O may be used without deviating from thescope of the invention.

A keyboard 530 and a cursor control device 535, such as a computermouse, a touchpad, etc., are further coupled to bus 505 to enable a userto interface with computing system 500. However, in certain embodiments,a physical keyboard and mouse may not be present, and the user mayinteract with the device solely through display 525 and/or a touchpad(not shown). Any type and combination of input devices may be used as amatter of design choice. In certain embodiments, no physical inputdevice and/or display is present. For instance, the user may interactwith computing system 500 remotely via another computing system incommunication therewith, or computing system 500 may operateautonomously.

Memory 515 stores software modules that provide functionality whenexecuted by processor(s) 510. The modules include an operating system540 for computing system 500. The modules further include a combinedtechnique graphical element detection module 545 that is configured toperform all or part of the processes described herein or derivativesthereof. Computing system 500 may include one or more additionalfunctional modules 550 that include additional functionality.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that a “system” could be embodiedas a server, an embedded computing system, a personal computer, aconsole, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cell phone, a tabletcomputing device, a quantum computing system, or any other suitablecomputing device, or combination of devices without deviating from thescope of the invention. Presenting the above-described functions asbeing performed by a “system” is not intended to limit the scope of thepresent invention in any way, but is intended to provide one example ofthe many embodiments of the present invention. Indeed, methods, systems,and apparatuses disclosed herein may be implemented in localized anddistributed forms consistent with computing technology, including cloudcomputing systems.

It should be noted that some of the system features described in thisspecification have been presented as modules, in order to moreparticularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, amodule may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom verylarge scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelfsemiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discretecomponents. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardwaredevices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable arraylogic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or thelike.

A module may also be at least partially implemented in software forexecution by various types of processors. An identified unit ofexecutable code may, for instance, include one or more physical orlogical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, beorganized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, theexecutables of an identified module need not be physically locatedtogether, but may include disparate instructions stored in differentlocations that, when joined logically together, comprise the module andachieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may bestored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a harddisk drive, flash device, RAM, tape, and/or any other suchnon-transitory computer-readable medium used to store data withoutdeviating from the scope of the invention.

Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, ormany instructions, and may even be distributed over several differentcode segments, among different programs, and across several memorydevices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustratedherein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form andorganized within any suitable type of data structure. The operationaldata may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed overdifferent locations including over different storage devices, and mayexist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system ornetwork.

Per the above, some embodiments employ attributes from two or moregraphical element detection techniques to identify graphical elements ina UI. These techniques may be configured for RPA workflow activities atdesign time in an RPA designer application in some embodiments. FIG. 6Aillustrates an example graphical element detection techniqueconfiguration interface for an RPA designer application 600, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. RPA designer application 600includes an RPA workflow development pane 610. When a user clicks anactivity that interacts with a graphical element in a UI, a graphicalelement detection technique configuration pane 620 shows possiblegraphical element detection techniques and respective attributes forthat activity.

Graphical element detection technique configuration pane 620 providesthe RPA developer with the ability to select from among multiplegraphical element detection techniques and their associated attributes.A triangle 622 allows the RPA developer to show or hide a list ofattributes for each graphical element detection technique. A graphicalelement detection technique selection checkbox 624 allows the RPAdeveloper to select or de-select all of the attributes for a givengraphical element detection technique at once. An attribute checkbox 626allows the RPA developer to select or de-select a respective attribute.

In some embodiments, fuzzy matching may be employed for the attributes.By selecting a fuzzy matching radio button 628, the RPA developer cancause a respective fuzzy matching threshold field 629 to appear. The RPAdeveloper can then specify a threshold for fuzzy matching. In someembodiments, other interaction mechanisms may be used including, but notlimited to, sliders, manual editing of XML, etc. For instance, a tagsuch as the following may be displayed including attributes:

<wnd app=‘java.exe’ cls=‘SunAwtFrame’ title=‘SwingSet2’

matching:title=‘fuzzy’ fuzzylevel:title=‘0.8’/>

where the attributes “matching:title” and “fuzzylevel:title” were addedto the <wnd/> tag. The matching:title attribute has the value “fuzzy” toindicate that the value of the “title” attribute of the current tag willbe fuzzy matched at runtime. The value of the fuzzylevel:title attributeindicates the desired fuzzy similarity threshold specified by thedeveloper (in this example, 0.8). One of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that there may be many other ways of encoding a fuzzinessflag earmarking a selected attribute for fuzzy matching withoutdeviating from the scope of the invention.

In some embodiments, the RPA designer application may provide RPAdevelopers with the ability to search for attributes manually. Forinstance, RPA designer application 600 includes an attribute searchfield 630 that may perform a search for an attribute as the RPAdeveloper types text. In certain embodiments, a list of matchingattributes, if any, may appear with each character that is typed.

In this example, click activity 612 has been configured to click acertain checkbox. However, any suitable activity that seeks to interactwith one or more graphical elements may be used and configured withoutdeviating from the scope of the invention. The graphical elementdetection technique(s) for each suitable activity may be configured inthis manner to perform the desired RPA actions. In certain embodiments,the RPA developer may choose to use only a single graphical elementdetection technique for one or more activities and multiple simultaneousgraphical element detection techniques for one or more other activities.This provides a highly flexible RPA development tool.

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate another example graphical element detectiontechnique configuration interface 700 for an RPA designer application,according to an embodiment of the present invention. As with graphicalelement detection technique configuration interface 600, graphicalelement detection technique configuration interface 700 includes an RPAworkflow development pane 710 with a click activity 712, a graphicalelement detection technique configuration pane 720, and an attributesearch field 730. However, in this embodiment, the other graphicalelement detection techniques are nested within a unified targettechnique 721. If unified target technique 721 is selected, as in FIG.7A, a unified target approach will be used that applies the othertechniques in series, in parallel, or at least one of the techniques fora period of time and then if no match is found in the period of time,employs at least one other technique in parallel.

If unified target technique 721 is de-selected, the developer may selectand de-select desired techniques and/or attributes. A triangle 722allows the RPA developer to show or hide a list of attributes for eachgraphical element detection technique. A graphical element detectiontechnique selection checkbox 724 allows the RPA developer to select orde-select all of the attributes for a given graphical element detectiontechnique at once. An attribute checkbox 726 allows the RPA developer toselect or de-select a respective attribute. In some embodiments, fuzzymatching may be employed for the attributes. By selecting a fuzzymatching radio button 728, the RPA developer can cause a respectivefuzzy matching threshold field 729 to appear.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process 800 for configuring an RPAworkflow to perform graphical element detection using a combination ofUI descriptor attributes from two or more graphical element detectiontechniques, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In someembodiments, process 800 may be performed by RPA designer applications600 or 700 of FIG. 6 or 7A and 7B. The process begins with receiving anactivity selection in an RPA workflow at 810 to be configured to performgraphical element detection using a combination of UI descriptorattributes from two or more graphical element detection techniques. Insome embodiments, the types of graphical element detection techniquesand/or the UI descriptor attributes are chosen automatically at 820based on the action implemented by the activity (e.g., click, get text,hover, etc.), the graphical element type (e.g., button, text field,etc.), and/or the specific graphical element that is indicated by theRPA developer (i.e., which element the user picked on the screen andwhat other elements are present in the application). With respect to thespecific graphical element, if the RPA developer clicks one OK button,for example, but there are two OK buttons on the screen, some attributesmay be automatically added to distinguish between the two otherwiseidentical OK buttons. When using a UI tree, for instance, the UI tree isusually built in such a way that when an RPA developer indicates agraphical element on the screen, at least some of the attributes in theUI tree are different for that graphical element than for othergraphical elements. The RPA designer application may receive selectionsof and/or modifications to the attributes for the graphical elementdetection techniques from the RPA developer at 830 in order to customconfigure the activity.

The RPA designer application then configures the activity based on thechosen graphical element detection techniques and attributes at 840. Ifmore activities are to be configured, the RPA developer may selectanother activity and the process returns to step 810. Once the desiredactivit(ies) are configured, the RPA designer application generates anRPA robot to implement an RPA workflow including the configuredactivit(ies) at 850. The process then ends or proceeds to FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process 900 for performinggraphical element detection using a combination of UI descriptorattributes from two or more graphical element detection techniques,according to an embodiment of the present invention. In someembodiments, process 900 may be implemented at runtime by an RPA robotcreated via RPA designer applications 600 or 700 of FIG. 6 or 7A and 7B.The process begins with analyzing a UI (e.g., a screenshot, an image ofan application window, etc.) to identify UI element attributes at 910.The UI element attributes may include, but are not limited to, images,text, relationships between graphical elements, a hierarchicalrepresentation of the graphical elements in the UI, etc. Theidentification may be performed via CV, OCR, API calls, analysis of textfiles (e.g., HTML, XML, etc.), a combination thereof, etc.

After the UI has been analyzed, the UI element attributes are comparedto configured UI descriptor attributes of two or more graphical elementdetection techniques for an activity at 920. This may be based on theconfiguration of the activity in step 840 of FIG. 8, for example. If aUI element matching the attributes of the graphical element detectiontechniques is found at 930 via an exact match or a threshold match, theaction associated with that activity involving the UI element isperformed at 940 (e.g., clicking a button, entering text, interactingwith a menu, etc.). If there are more activities at 950, the processproceeds to step 920 for the next activity. If, however, the UI elementmatching the attributes of the graphical element detection techniques isnot found at 930, an exception is thrown at 960 and the process ends.

The process steps performed in FIGS. 8 and 9 may be performed by acomputer program, encoding instructions for the processor(s) to performat least part of the process(es) described in FIGS. 8 and 9 inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention. The computerprogram may be embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium.The computer-readable medium may be, but is not limited to, a hard diskdrive, a flash device, RAM, a tape, and/or any other such medium orcombination of media used to store data. The computer program mayinclude encoded instructions for controlling processor(s) of a computingsystem (e.g., processor(s) 510 of computing system 500 of FIG. 5) toimplement all or part of the process steps described in FIGS. 8 and 9,which may also be stored on the computer-readable medium.

The computer program can be implemented in hardware, software, or ahybrid implementation. The computer program can be composed of modulesthat are in operative communication with one another, and which aredesigned to pass information or instructions to display. The computerprogram can be configured to operate on a general purpose computer, anASIC, or any other suitable device.

It will be readily understood that the components of various embodimentsof the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in thefigures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations. Thus, the detailed description of theembodiments of the present invention, as represented in the attachedfigures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed,but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention.

The features, structures, or characteristics of the invention describedthroughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments. For example, reference throughout thisspecification to “certain embodiments,” “some embodiments,” or similarlanguage means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases“in certain embodiments,” “in some embodiment,” “in other embodiments,”or similar language throughout this specification do not necessarily allrefer to the same group of embodiments and the described features,structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner inone or more embodiments.

It should be noted that reference throughout this specification tofeatures, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of thefeatures and advantages that may be realized with the present inventionshould be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather,language referring to the features and advantages is understood to meanthat a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described inconnection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment ofthe present invention. Thus, discussion of the features and advantages,and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do notnecessarily, refer to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics ofthe invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that theinvention can be practiced without one or more of the specific featuresor advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additionalfeatures and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments thatmay not be present in all embodiments of the invention.

One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that theinvention as discussed above may be practiced with steps in a differentorder, and/or with hardware elements in configurations which aredifferent than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although theinvention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, itwould be apparent to those of skill in the art that certainmodifications, variations, and alternative constructions would beapparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore,reference should be made to the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for detectinggraphical elements in a user interface (UI), comprising: providing, by adesigner application, a selection interface that facilitates selectionof graphical element detection techniques of a plurality of graphicalelement detection techniques for individual activities of a roboticprocess automation (RPA) workflow on a per-activity basis, wherein theselection interface comprises the plurality of graphical elementdetection techniques and a list of selectable and de-selectableattributes for each of the plurality of graphical element detectiontechniques; receiving, by the designer application, a selection from theselection interface of an activity to be configured in the RPA workflow;receiving, by the designer application, selections of and/ormodifications to one or more graphical element detection techniques ofthe plurality of graphical element detection techniques, one or more UIdescriptor attributes of the one or more graphical element detectiontechniques, or a combination thereof, for the selected activity; andconfiguring the selected activity, by the designer application, based onthe received selections and/or modifications.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:automatically configuring one or more of the plurality of graphicalelement detection techniques, one or more of the UI descriptorattributes, or both, by the designer application.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the automaticconfiguration is performed by the designer application based on anaction implemented by the activity, a type of the target graphicalelement, a presence of one or more other graphical elements in the UI,or a combination thereof.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the process of claim 1 is repeated for at least one additionalactivity in the RPA workflow.
 5. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, further comprising: generating an RPA robot configured toimplement the configured activity, by the designer application.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the RPA robot isconfigured to use a subset of the UI descriptor attributes for at leastone of the plurality of graphical element detection techniques.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising: analyzing aUI at runtime, by the RPA robot, to identify UI element attributes;comparing the UI element attributes to the configured UI descriptorattributes for the activity, by the RPA robot; and when a UI elementmatching the attributes of the plurality of graphical element detectiontechniques is found via an exact match or a threshold match: taking anaction associated with the activity involving the UI element, by the RPArobot.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the UIattributes comprise images, text, relationships between graphicalelements in the UI, a hierarchical representation of the graphicalelements in the UI, or a combination thereof.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the process of claim 7is repeated for at least one additional activity.
 10. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein types of the UIdescriptors comprise two or more of a selector, a computer vision (CV)descriptor, an image matching descriptor, and an optical characterrecognition (OCR) descriptor.
 11. A computer program embodied on anon-transitory computer-readable medium, the computer program configuredto cause at least one processor to: provide a selection interface thatfacilitates selection of graphical element detection techniques of aplurality of graphical element detection techniques for individualactivities of a robotic process automation (RPA) workflow on aper-activity basis, wherein the selection interface comprises theplurality of graphical element detection techniques and a list ofselectable and de-selectable attributes for each of the plurality ofgraphical element detection techniques; receive a selection from theselection interface of an activity to be configured in the RPA workflow;receive selections of and/or modifications to one or more graphicalelement detection techniques of the plurality of graphical elementdetection techniques, one or more UI descriptor attributes of theplurality of graphical element detection techniques, or a combinationthereof; and configure the selected activity based on the receivedselections and/or modifications.
 12. The computer program of claim 11,wherein the computer program is further configured to cause the at leastone processor to: automatically configure one or more of the pluralityof graphical element detection techniques, one or more of the UIdescriptor attributes, or both.
 13. The computer program of claim 12,wherein the automatic configuration is performed based on an actionimplemented by the activity, a type of the target graphical element, apresence of one or more other graphical elements in the UI, or acombination thereof.
 14. The computer program of claim 11, wherein theprocess of claim 11 is repeated for at least one additional activity inthe RPA workflow.
 15. The computer program of claim 11, wherein thecomputer program is further configured to cause the at least oneprocessor to: generate an RPA robot configured to implement theconfigured activity.
 16. The computer program of claim 15, wherein theRPA robot is configured to use a subset of the UI descriptor attributesfor at least one of the plurality of graphical element detectiontechniques.
 17. The computer program of claim 11, wherein the types ofUI descriptors comprise two or more of a selector, a computer vision(CV) descriptor, an image matching descriptor, and an optical characterrecognition (OCR) descriptor.
 18. A computer-implemented method fordetecting graphical elements in a user interface (UI), comprising:providing, by a designer application, a selection interface thatfacilitates selection of graphical element detection techniques of aplurality of graphical element detection techniques for individualactivities of a robotic process automation (RPA) workflow on aper-activity basis, wherein the selection interface comprises a list ofselectable and de-selectable attributes for each of the plurality ofgraphical element detection techniques; receiving, by the designerapplication, selections of multiple graphical element detectiontechniques of the plurality of graphical element detection techniquesfor an activity; and configuring the activity, by the designerapplication, based on the received graphical element detection techniqueselections.